Always the Odd One Out
by aorangeinboston
Summary: She was always the odd one out. She was never accepted at Privet Drive and even in the place that feels most like home she was always the stray among her friends. Gemma Potter grows up beside her brother, working to be a normal student all the while her brother is battling basilisks, headlines, school work, and a dark lord.
1. Privet Drive in the Morning

Yes. Another HP sister-fic. Though after reading through a ton of stories with similar prompts "Harry has a sister" I'm hoping to break the mold of the sister fic and make good work of this story.

Let me introduce Gemma Elisabeth Potter. The youngest daughter of Lily and James Potter, Gemma was born on May 1, 1981 several months before both of her parents died. Now rather than telling you I'm going to let you meet her yourself.

Thanks for reading!

Meg

* * *

Three children all under the age of eleven sat at the kitchen table seemingly enjoying their breakfasts. Though while the fattest of the three children, a boy named Dudley, ate his extravagant breakfast with little consideration of any type of manners, the two more curious occupants of number 4 Privet Drive were concentrating on the conversation that was going on out in the hall. In a non-chelate attempt at eaves dropping on the conversation a messy black haired boy leaned on his arm towards the doorway, while the smaller auburn haired girl leaned back in her chair as she stared at her empty cereal bowl, concentrating on the voices in the hallway.

"Petunia this is the third time this month!" While the children listened to the panicked voice of the man they could almost imagine the man's fat face growing from its normal shade of red to a light purple.

"I know Vernon, but we've changed the lock on that door four times and she is still getting out!" The woman he was arguing with was probably dusting off some invisible dirt of one of the numerous pictures of her son Dudley in the hallway, for her cleaning was the main distraction from the odd occurrences that were going on in the house.

"How is she doing it?" The man's voice raised several pitches higher and the two children guessed that his face's shade of purple had also darkened.

"She won't tell me."

"The boy must be helping her."

"He isn't, even when we locked her in the hall closet she still got out."

"The freaks." The man hissed the term that he preferred to call the two extra children living in his house.

"We can't let her get out anymore, people are starting to notice."

"How though?"

"Send her away, to a hospital or somewhere, where they can monitor this, where they can sedate her."

* * *

While Dudley may have been a dull bulb in the class room he knew when he could get to people at their weakest both physically and emotionally. He smiled with glee at the anger in his parent's voices; he turned his attention away from his fried breakfast and to the tiny girl across the table. "Mummy and Daddy are mad at you."

The girl let her long hair fall over her face as she looked down at her cereal bowl, she could ignore the best of his taunts but even the events that had occurred this early morning had rattled her.

"You're even more of a freak than scar-head over here." She picked up her spoon and at a sluggish pace began to make swirls in the remaining milk.

"They're going to send you away." Her milk drawings stopped at the verbalization of her worst fear.

The black haired boy glared at Dudley before he spoke pointedly, "Shut up Dudley."

"What? You know it too scar head, she's a real freak."

The 'real freak' was actually named Gemma Elisabeth Potter, though her aunt and uncle who were arguing out in the hallway preferred to call her by her more normal middle name of Elisabeth. Petunia and Vernon greatly disliked the strangeness that the two Potter children brought onto their household. For 'scar head' (otherwise known as Harry) her older brother and she were an unwelcome oddity in the very prim neighborhood of Privet.

Harry and Gemma while "clothed" by their relatives, the Dursleys, were never outfitted in clothes that were appropriate for their size, and for Gemma her gender. Harry was usually given the hand me downs of their much fatter and ungrateful cousin Dudley and Gemma in turn was given Harry's old hand me downs. Their odd outfits made them even further outcasts of the neighborhood children, who were already told not only by their parents but Dudley as well to stay away from those Potter 'freaks'.

Gemma and Harry were generally disliked not only because of Dudley's tyranny over the other local children but another label had been put upon them, orphans. While becoming an orphan wasn't an actual epidemic that passed on from one person to another by being close to a parentless child, the children of Privet Drive seemed to live in fear that it was.

But each of the Potter children also had a unique characteristic about them that was a favorite point to taunt them about by their cousin Dudley. Harry had a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead, while Gemma had the issue of sleepwalking into the middle of Privet Drive in the dead of night. Many of the parents often made comments about the children's odd features, though while Harry's was physical and didn't seem to be dangerous, Gemma's sleepwalking had given her the reputation of the makings of a mentally unstable criminal.

But while the neighborhood worried about Gemma walking around in their back gardens at night the Dursleys were much more worried about their locks. Gemma and Harry slept in different cupboards in their residence on Privet Drive; Harry had a much roomier space underneath the stairs while Gemma was stowed away in the laundry closet. And while the Dursleys had installed locks on both children's doors, the number of locks on Gemma's door had just recently reached eight. When Gemma was sleepwalking she somehow was always able to get the locks unfastened even while they were on the outside of the door. The Dursleys were sure that Gemma had created some sneaky little way to unlock the doors, but even with the addition of several locks on the front and back doors Gemma was still able to somehow get out of the house at night.

The most recent episode of sleep walking had occurred just last night and Gemma had managed to make her way down Privet Drive and into their neighbor Ms. Figg's front garden. Ms. Figg didn't seem to mind the company but she was extremely worried about Gemma catching a cold while being out just in her night clothes and had called the Dursleys immediately upon her discovery. The Dursleys were less than happy at the fact that Gemma had been found outside of their house and in seemingly good health.

During the time that Harry and Dudley were having their quick exchange Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had returned themselves to the kitchen, both with looks that gave the message that they had 'agreed to discuss it later'. These looks though were however quickly replaced with ones of joy as they looked to their golden boy Dudley, they couldn't let any more tiny details getting in the way of his eleventh birthday. They had already faced a tiny melt down when Dudley had brought it to their attention that they had come up a present short of last year's birthday present mark, which simply would not do in the Dursley household. And now they had the added stress of bringing the freak siblings along with them on the family's trip to the zoo, as Ms. Figg who they usually dumped the Potter children onto when important events like this arouse had recently tripped over one of her pet cats and had broken her leg.

"Now Dudders why don't you go try on your new jacket and then we'll be ready to go."

Dudley shot up from his seat, leaving his empty plate and cereal bowl for the Potters to clean up. Though as Gemma made to grab the plate Uncle Vernon's fat paw snatched her wrist.

"Now you to listen here." Harry was looking between Uncle Vernon's face and the fist that was clamped around Gemma's arm, "Any funny business and you'll be off to the nuthouse, and I'll make sure you won't see the light of day for a month." Over the course of the statement his voice had gone lower and meaner, he now paused, his beady eyes looking between his niece and nephew, "Understood?"

"Yes Uncle Vernon."

"Good, clean this mess up."

* * *

The darling Dudley had them running through the zoo, never stopping to really appreciate any of the animals long enough to properly recognize what they were, trailing behind him where his parents smiling at the boy's antics as he ran and shoved his way through the crowd. Behind the two adults (who really didn't care if their wards got lost or stolen and refused to associate themselves with the Potters after entering the zoo) were Harry and Gemma, who shuffled along with a crowd of visiting school children listening to what their tour guide had to say about various animals. Gemma who was significantly shorter than most of the children in the group ahead of them was being given a piggy back ride by Harry, even though it didn't give her much of a boost over the crowd Gemma enjoyed the fun her and her brother were having.

"How 'bout over there, by that snake."

"The one Dudders is at?" Gemma giggled at the use of Dudley's pet name.

She nodded enthusiastically, her movements shaking Harry's body. "Yeah, maybe we'll scare him off and save the snake some pain."

He turned to look at her, "Let's go then." He hefted Gemma higher up on his torso and started to trot forward causing them to break through the crowd of students ahead of them.

* * *

Even though the Durselys strived to keep Gemma and Harry separated when they were not in either adults presence, at the moment it was not on their mind as they shoved both Potter children into the cramped cupboard under the stairs. Harry strained his vision to find Gemma's eyes in the dark, after a few moments he began to make out the faint light that always seemed to break its way through the cracks of the cupboard door and he could see Gemma's wide eyes.

"What happened Gem?" The reflection of the light was broken for a few moments as she squeezed her eyes shut. "Gem. Tell me."

Her voice cracked, "You were. You're whispering at it, at the snake." She swallowed thickly, Harry hadn't noticed how upset she had been after the snake had gotten out, he was too preoccupied with being dragged out by the scruff by Uncle Vernon, "And it, it was hissing back. Like you were talking with it." She paused to scrub the back of her hands on her eyes and cheeks, "Harry it was like you were talking with the snake."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, but they both jumped when they heard a banging coming from above their heads, though after a moment of further silence Harry deemed it safe to speak, "You couldn't hear it?"

"Of course not!" Gemma shrieked.

"Will you two quiet down!" Aunt Petunia squawked from upstairs.

Harry looked back at Gemma's outline in the darkness, she was slouching, looking defeated but Harry didn't know from what, "I didn't mean to set it off." He spoke a bit firmer, as if he were more confident of what he thought had happen that Gemma would to, "And I didn't get him behind the glass."

"Harry, it looked like it." She whispered.

He reached his hand out touching the edge of the hand me down windbreaker she had on, "I swear Gemma, it thanked me about the glass. It said it'd see me later."

She pulled back, banging her elbow into the wall, "Well if you do, just, just, just tell it to go away!" she hissed.

"Quiet!"


	2. Strange Times at Diagon Alley

If there are any readers, I am really sorry about the long wait, I have so many chunks and pieces of this story written up but nothing is really threaded together yet, I'm slowly working on it. But here's chapter two. Critiques are welcome! And if any people are interested in betaing I'd be happy for your help and input!

-anorangeinboston

* * *

If Gemma was the mad one in the family, Uncle Vernon must have been a completely different level of mental.

As of late owls and strange letters addressed to Harry had been appearing at the Dursley household, and in an attempt to keep up their reputation as the most normal family in the history of normal families in the normal nation of the United (Normal) Kingdom, Uncle Vernon had gone through extreme attempts to keep the owls and letters from coming anywhere near the house. But his plans had been spoiled when finally after days of finding letters in odd places around the house (Gemma had found a few in her socks) the Big Bang, as Gemma and Harry preferred to call it, occurred.

While on a reasonably normal Sunday in, the Dursely family who were watching a television program and eating biscuits were interrupted when what seemed to be thousands of letters rocketed their way out of their chimney. This should have been Harry's chance to finally catch a letter and see what all the fuss was about had come, though his attempt was ruined when Uncle Vernon caught up with him and confiscated the letter that he had managed to grab. Vernon then decided that it was about time that the family had a nice holiday.

The holiday though, wasn't going to Vernon's plans. While Harry and Gemma expected to have less tolerance for their presence on this trip than usual, Uncle Vernon was even becoming short with Aunt Petunia and Dudley, ignoring their pleas for pit stops. Finally though after what Uncle Vernon believed was a pursuit of the family across the coast of south-west England, as the letters seemed to be determined to follow them, he stopped the car off of the side of the motor way. In the distance a shack on what appeared to be a large boulder could be made out. After a moment's pause, Aunt Petunia climbed out of the car after Vernon. Dudley and the Potters following soon after.

"The man with the boat says we'll be out there before nightfall."

The Vernons and Harry turned at Gemma's voice, "I want to stay in the car."

Uncle Vernon leaned forward with a deadly look peeping out of his squinted eyes, "Excuse me?"

Taking a large gulp of the salty air Gemma rooted her trainers into the sandy dirt, "I want to stay in the car. The entire thing looks like it's about to fall into the ocean."

Vernon's eyes widened at her defiance, out of the two children Gemma had always been the compliable one. Taking large and quick steps around the boot of the car Vernon looked down at the mop of curls defying him, "Well excuse me you little brat, I didn't know that you had a say in what this family does."

"Vernon just leave it. He's staring." Petunia bite out, yelling at a child who was seemingly afraid was not a part of their normal façade.

Now Vernon's beady glare was turned onto his wife, "We'll talk about this later."

* * *

There was a giant. There was a giant inside of their little holiday hut thing on a rock. There was a giant inside of their little holiday hut thing on a rock talking to Harry about their parents and how Harry was famous for something. And oh, the giant was now talking to her.

"You must be Gemma."

Hagrid's voice was so loud she didn't know if her own could fill up the dead silence in the dank sitting room left by his. She opened her mouth and made an attempt. "El-Elisabeth sir."

He pulled himself up and angrily called out to Uncle Vernon, who was huddling behind Aunt Petunia, "Elisabeth? Now where's Gemma?"

All five shorter members of the room jumped at the rise in volume, Harry sputtered out, "This is Gemma she just likes to be called Elisabeth."

From the movement of his massive beard Gemma guessed that Hagrid was now smiling again, he stuck out his hand, "Ahh I see, well Miss Elisabeth it is a pleasure to meet you. You look an awful lot like your Mum."

"Oh- uh thank you." Gemma looked from Harry to Hagrid's hand and then to Hagrid's face before she looked back to Harry, who was making a slightly encouraging 'don't be rude and shake the man's hand' look.

"Now I know you're a bit disappointed that Harry is going to be going this year, but only a year left for you." Gemma was staring down at her and Hagrid's handshake, or rather at how it seemed the Hagrid's hand was eating her arm, but looked up when it was mentioned that Harry was going to be going somewhere.

She looked at his eyes; somehow it was possible that this situation could get even more confusing, "Where's Harry going sir?"

He suddenly let go of her hand and she took a few steps back until she bumped into Harry, Hagrid's head was pivoting between the Dursleys in the corner and the Potters by the fireplace, "You don't know?"

"Know about what?" Harry finally seemed to have found his voice again.

Hagrid's beard grew a little bit as his mouth dropped open, "About our world?"

"Who's world?" Gemma whispered.

A look of complete disbelief passed through his eyes as he searched Gemma and Harry's faces, trying to see if they were playing a clever joke on him, "Ours, your mum and your dads."

Then Uncle Vernon screeched from his place from the corner and attempted to get in between Hagrid and the Potters, "Stop! Stop right there! I will not let you tell them anything!"

"They don't know nothing?" The polite tone that Hagrid had been using with the two children disappeared completely, his voice now became a growl and he straightened his posture a bit, taking up more space in the little shack.

"We swore that when we took them in that this would be the end of it."

"Dursley!" Vernon jumped at the roar, "You mean to tell me that they've never seen the letter that Dumbledore left for them? Never been told about where their parents learned it all?" One of Hagrid's fingers now were poking their way into Vernon's face, Vernon going cross eyed looking at it.

After a few tense moments of silence Gemma gave a cough. Harry at some point in the conversation had gotten a grip onto her jumper and she could feel his knuckles tighten as she spoke up, "Mr. Hagrid, what exactly did they learn?"

"Magic." Hagrid stated, as if it was the most simplest thing in the world, "Harry here is a wizard."

"Me- a, a wizard?"

Hagrid's niceness from earlier returned as he faced the Potter children, "And just like your ol' mum and dad you'll be going to the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in all of Europe."

"I'll not be paying for this!"

Hagrid rounded on Uncle Vernon and laughed, "And I like to see a great muggle like yer self stop them."

* * *

Gemma could only say that the conversation went up from there. Not only was Uncle Vernon shut right up, but Hagrid, the keeper of keys at Hogwarts, had told Harry and herself that they were magical and that this year because Harry was now 11 years old he would be attending the magical academy in Scotland.

Currently Hagrid, Harry and Gemma were sitting on a "muggle" train, muggles were non-magical folk. They had no clue about this secret community of magical people or they were not supposed to know about them but occasionally a few would be exposed to some magic. Hagrid was taking the Potters into the heart of London where Harry was to pick up his school supplies.

Most of the "muggles" on the train kept looking over at the giant man and the two small children that occupied one end of the car, Gemma had to admit that Hagrid was a sight that took some getting used to. Though after talking to Hagrid about various topics such as dragons (Harry and Gemma had now learned he would do anything to have a pet dragon) Gemma had become comfortable with his presence. He always had a smile on his face, even with it hidden by his beard you could see the edges of his beard move and while he was rather loud in the small area it seemed that Hagrid was soft spoken, never truly raising his voice to the degree that Gemma guessed he could.

Harry was bent over his school list at the moment; he had been reading it almost obsessively ever since they had sat themselves on the train, "Hagrid you really think we can find all of this in London?"

Hagrid's beard began to move and he opened his mouth into a mischievous smile, "If you know where to look."

* * *

The looks that the pub goers had been giving Harry had been strange. The fact that to get to the place that Hagrid "knew where to look" he had to knock a password onto bricks had been strange. The people in cloaks and witches hats, the owls flying around, the randomly levitating items, the brooms for sale, the goblins running a bank, the fact that Harry and she had money (a lot of money in fact, even if it was wizard money) had all been strange. Though this took the cake for strange, a book was in a cage. A book with teeth, fur, eyes and a ferocious growl was locked in a cage, and was for sale, but not in a pet store.

It was underneath a sign that read 'used school books' where there were variously damaged copies of different levels of alchemy and transfiguration books as wells as copies from other disciplines. Leaning forward Gemma locked eyes with the battered and furry book, so far all she heard was growls, it was probably just a joke. It had to be, no one in their right mind would make children study from a book that was going to attempt to maim you. She raised a finger to touch the edge of the cage; the vibrations from her light touch set the book off, it began to glide forward, opening and closing its mouth at such a ferocious rate that bits of torn up paper began to fly out of it.

Jumping back Gemma, decided that it was probably best that she buy her books and leave, before she lost a part of herself in the book store. As she made her way farther into the book shop, where the queue was heading a man across the aisle from Gemma had just opened a book and a fireball came out and scorched his face, leaving him with black ash and smoking eyebrows. Not paying attention she kept on walking, bumping into a tall boy that was at the end of the queue.

"Sorry." Gemma mumbled up at the boy.

"It's alright." The boy himself was caring a pile of books, most had the word OWL on the spine of them.

As he turned back to shuffle forward a few feet in the queue as another customer moved up to the counter, Gemma asked "Do you like owls?"

He looked back down at her, his brow furrowed "Wha'?"

Shuffling forward like the other shop patrons Gemma clarified, "Do you like owls? You have an awful lot of books on owls."

He laughed. "No, it's for me OWLS, there a test when you take in your fifth year at Hogwarts." She gave him a look before taking a closer look at the book's spines, "Are you a first year?"

Gemma readjusted her grip on the books in her arms, "No, but my brother is going to be."

Nodding the boy took another step forward in line, "What house is he hoping to be in?"

"House?" Gemma remembered that Hagrid had told them that Hogwarts was supposed to be a giant castle, why would Harry have to be in a house?

"The school houses, you get sorted into them first year. They're like teams, there's Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, which is where I am, or Slytherin." He said the last house bitterly.

Gemma was stumped; did Harry know any of this? "Oh, well I don't think he knows really."

He gave her another nod and then began in a patronizing voice, "Ah, are your parent's muggles?"

"Like the people who aren't witches and wizards?"

"Yea'." He gave another nod.

"No, Hagrid said that our mum and dad went to Hogwarts." A look of confusion ran across his face.

"Ah, maybe I know them." He gave her a look that said 'well'.

"Lily and James Potter."

The stack of eight books fell from his arms the minute she finished her last name.

"What!" He just stared at her, not even caring about his books.

Gemma set her own what seemed miniscule pile of books down and bent to help grab a few of the books that tumbled near her, "What's the matter with them?"

He had seemed to regain some of his wits as he took the books Gemma had handed him, "Nothing, nothing, I just… I didn't know that they had a daughter is all. I thought it was just Harry."

Gemma froze. It was just like those people in the pub, "How'd you know my brother's name?"

"Everyone does." She looked up at him sharply.

"Is that why all those people shook our hands at the pub?"

"The leaky cauldron? Of course they'd shake your hands, your brother stopped you-know-who."

Gemma looked at him skeptically, "You-know-who?" No she did not know who you-know-who was.

"You're holding up the line son!"

"Sorry, sorry." He muttered before moving forward a few feet.

"You-know-who?" Gemma repeated.

"I… I… ask one of the clerks about history, recent history, ask about you-know-who."

"Oi! Stop chatting and move the queue!" Another man called behind them angrily. The boy had moved forward a bit, awkwardly trying to keep from tripping over the piles of books that littered the floor and still keep looking at her.

Gemma backed out of the line, once again managing to bump into someone else, hearing their irritated sigh she threaded her way quickly to where she had earlier spotted the history section of the shop.

* * *

Gemma now once again settled in the queue watched as the boy from earlier walked out of the shop with an older woman, both were splitting the stack of books that he had earlier, "Yeah it was weird mum! She said that she was his sister or something, that it'd be his first year at school."

His mother was looking down at a piece of parchment similar to the one Hagrid had given Harry the day before, "Well it was 10 years ago, he's probably at school age now." Her aloof tone seemed to say that her concentration was on the remaining items of the list rather than her son's strange experience.

She motioned for the boy to move in front of her, and she balanced the parchment on his back, he turned his head so that he could glance at her from over his shoulder, "But did you know that they had a daughter?"

She had pulled a quill out her robes and began checking off random spaces of the parchment, "No clue."

"But shouldn't we have heard about her?" She stuffed the parchment and quill back into her robs before she took one of the stacks out of the boy's hands.

She began to walk off down the street, "Oliver dear, it was probably a little girl fibbing to get a laugh. Let it drop, come on lets meet your father at QQS before he buys another puddlemere jersey."

She hadn't even taken a step out of the book shop before Hagrid's booming voice called her attention over to the stack of used books she had been standing at earlier, he was standing next to the horrible animal, book thing, "Ah there you are Gemma. You got Harry his present?"

She was momentarily distracted from her strange encounter with the boy and the whole you-know-who conversation, she smiled up at the giant, "Yeah I did, I got him a book on owls!"

He returned her smile with a grin of his own, his beard moving up, "That'll be great help with this little lovie!"

Gemma hadn't even noticed the cage that he had been holding at first, she was more distracted by the animal books animated growling and jumps as it tried to reach a piece of Hagrid's jacked that had managed to get itself caught in its cage, "She's beautiful Hagrid!"

"Only the best for you two." Her smile grew at that. No one ever got Harry and her the best.

"Now let's go see how he's doing at Ollivander's."

As they walked along the busy street, Gemma clutching onto Hagrid's jacket to not get lost in the crowd, they hadn't noticed the book animal's cage that had been knocked down by Hagrid's departure. Screams erupted from the area as a flurry of scrap paper flew from where the book was scuttling around.


End file.
